Here’s Why Kang Will Be in the MCU Before Ant-Man 3

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has found its next biggest villain. Monday morning, Deadline’s Justin Kroll dropped the bomb that Jonathan Majors would be playing one of the villains in Ant-Man 3. The initial report said the budding actor, who’s recently risen to prominence as the lead in HBO Max’s Lovecraft Country, could be playing Kang the Conqueror. As of Monday afternoon, several other trades have confirmed the reporting, even going the length to say Majors is, in fact, playing Kang. While this has all been about Kang appearingin Ant-Man 3, there’s the likelihood the character appears much sooner than the threequel. For giggles, let’s even say you could end up seeing the villain as early as next year — here’s why.

Majors’ Kang will probably appear long before Ant-Man 3. If we’re being frank, there’s a real possibility he appears in Loki next year.

Ant-Man 3 — or Ant-Man and the Wasp 2, or whatever you want to call it — won’t be released until October 7, 2022 at the earliest, unless Marvel Studios chooses to swap it with Black Panther 2 or Captain Marvel 2. As Thor: Love and Thunder, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and the two aforementioned sequels have yet to start shooting prinicipal photography, it stands to reason the Ant-Man threequel is a late 2022 or 2023 release.

The casting news comes uncharacteristically early for a Marvel Studios production, a studio that prides itself on keeping things under wraps until Kevin Feige deems otherwise. The timing is peculiar, especially when you look at what the production house is currently filming. As of recent, both The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and WandaVision have picked back up filming after a months-long delay and that means Loki is not far behind. That is, of course, if the Tom Hiddleston-starring series hasn’t already returned to the sound stages at Atalnta’s Pinewood Studios.

The announcement of Majors could come as Loki returns to production and begins to visit more outdoors locations. After all, we’ve already seen Owen Wilson’s character through leaked Loki set photos taken by paparazzi on outdoors sets.

We already know Loki will feature a plot rooted in time travel, introducing the Time Variance Authority to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Maybe Kang himself won’t appear in Loki, but Majors’ could appear as one of the TVA agents who somehow manages to get turned into Kang, or maybe Marvel’s planning on going full-on Kang. Either way, this writer fully expects to see the villain before Ant-Man 3.

Neither Loki or Ant-Man 3 have yet to get release dates from Marvel Studios.

Where do you think Kang will pop up first? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!